Page 51 of The Amber Sunburst

And if it was a possibility? Alexander would have to figure out how to get himself added to that rotation.

He expected to be sitting there all night, but, sure enough, at six minutes past eleven, Kallias walked through the dining hall and into the kitchen. Alexander waited to see if he was getting water or something, but he didn’t come back until an hour later.

And, look, suspicious movements through the Academy? A suspiciously large amount of information? Those two have got to be connected.

It’s been weighing on his mind heavily enough that he swears, if he doesn’t figure it out within the next few days, he’s going to go insane. So here he is, in the dining hall at three minutes past eleven.

Alexander’s not sure what he expects to find, but even if this is a dead end, at least it’s distracting him from his restlessness.

He crouches a little further behind one of the dining hall tables when someone enters from the stairwell.

Kallias would be perfectly sneaky—he makes almost no noise even when moving swiftly—but the moonlight illuminates his hair like a beacon.

He walks with purpose toward the kitchen door and slips through it. Alexander runs after him. When he enters the kitchen, Kallias is already through a swinging metal door near the industrial ovens. Alexander sneaks in behind him.

He’s surprised to enter a cellar, covered floor-to-ceiling in wine bottles. Someone must have hosted a spectacular party here because it’s a total mess. He tries to ignore the pungent yet appealing smell of alcohol; he hasn’t had a drink since arriving at the Academy, and he can’t afford to fall back into the violent drunken spiral he was stuck the month before the shipwreck, as much as he might like to.

Alexander navigates carefully around trash and discarded bottles, sticking close to the wall. He’s so focused on the floor that he doesn’t realize how close he is to the bottle rack on the wall next to him until a loud clink bounces around the room. Alexander cringes and holds his breath when Kallias’ head whips around, praying the darkness is complete enough to keep him hidden.

He doesn’t exhale even when Kallias shakes his head and continues on, moving a barrel aside in the back corner of the room and entering a tunnel behind it.

He leaves the opening exposed, probably because he’s returning soon, and Alexander doesn’t waste a moment. If he’s going to lose Kallias anywhere, it’ll be the mysterious tunnels.

As they trek through dirty paths, empty cups and clothes strewn about, Alexander wonders where these tunnels came from in the first place. There’s a whole network of them, turn after turn, some even leading to openings in the cliffside. But he doesn’t have much time to think about it because Kallias turns left at a fork and stops at a ladder. Alexander waits for him to get all the way to the top, then takes the rungs two at a time to follow after him.

Alexander pops out at the back corner of the Main Building, where the rose-covered columns meet the ones covered in barbed wire, and sees, from afar, golden hair bobbing down the rose hallway.

Alexander pushes himself onto the grass, only letting his gaze stray for a second, but when he looks back up, Kallias is gone.

Crap.

He breaks into a run. He would really prefer not to lose Kallias after this whole game of follow-the-leader. But he couldn’t have made it that far. The hallway stretches longer than anyone could cover in just a few seconds, so Kallias must have turned a corner into the inner courtyard.

When he finds an arch with the curtains open, Alexander swings through it double-time, hoping he hasn’t completely lost his target.

Well, ‘target’ feels a little violent.

His goal?

Hoping he hasn’t completely lost his goal—and then he hears a crack and the world goes black.

When Alexander opens his eyes, he finds Kallias, head cocked and eyes curious, looming above him with arms crossed and his cute scowl at full force.

“Jesus fucking Christ, Kallias,” Alexander groans with a hand to his head.

Then his eyes fly wide open because ‘Jesus Christ’? Did he learn nothing from the Nickel Incident?

When he takes the hand off his forehead he’s met with an expression kind of like… vindicated disappointment. If that’s even possible.

Maybe Kallias was hoping Alexander wasn’t as dumb as he seemed.

Alack and alas.

“You were following me,” Kallias finally notes.

“Would you believe me if I said I wasn’t?”

Kallias rolls his eyes.